March brought another month of moderation for renters and landlords, as rents continued to hold the line with only small changes. The national median rent for 1-bedroom apartments has decreased since last month.
After January’s surprising increase in single-family rental prices, February’s data brought a different story – drops in both apartment rent and single-family home rent vs. January. Both property types were off about 1% in February vs. January.
2023 is off to a surprising start, particularly for those in the market for single-family rental homes (“SFR”). Median asking rent prices for 3-bedroom SFR properties were up a whopping $128 or 7.4% in January vs. December.
As 2022 comes to a close, the moderation trend in rent prices continues. Asking rent for 1 bedroom apartments continues to be relatively stagnant, flat from November and up only $8 or 0.6% in 2022.
November rent prices were essentially unchanged, up just 0.1% from October. This comes after a drop of 2.5% ($52) in median asking rent between August and October that gave renters hope that rent increases were a thing of the past.
October brought a continuation of the monthly rent declines we first saw last month, with a 1.8% or $37 drop, following September’s 0.7% drop vs. August. It appears we may be on the cusp of a genuine trend of rent moderation after a year of consistent rent increases.
September was the first time in almost a year that we saw a monthly decline in median asking rents, which were down by $15/mo to $2,095 in September vs. August. This decline is actually more significant than just the 0.7%; we would normally expect a 0.5%-1.0% increase in rent prices from August to September as rent climbed to its seasonal peak.
August brought welcome relief for renters in the form of lower rent increases than we’ve seen in recent months. A 0.5% rent increase is below seasonal norms for August vs. August; we would normally expect rent to move up approximately 1% between these two months as rents approach their seasonal peak in the early fall.
In July, the nationwide median asking rent was $2,110/mo, which is 40% more than the median rent for July of last year. As has been the case for much of the past year, single-family home rentals are pushing up the overall market, with rents for that property type up more than 36%. Apartment rent, in contrast, is up 4.7%.
In June, the nationwide median asking rent was $2,045/mo, based on the data drawn from Dwellsy’s inventory of over 641,000 available rentals. This sample represents the availability of over 13 million rental properties across the country.
Single-family rentals continue to be the hottest type of rental for renters across the U.S., pushing rents to the highest levels yet. Persistently high demand and lagging supply for this asset class continue to drive prices up across the nearly 300K available single-family home rentals Dwellsy listed in May.
April brought yet another acceleration in asking rent, according to Dwellsy’s analysis of more than 533,000 available rental units. The nationwide median asking rent for April ’22 was $1920/mo.
In March, single-family rentals continued to bear the brunt of rent increases. Over the past year, single-family rent has risen 36% from $1,600 in March of 2021 to $2,175 in March of 2022, while apartment rents have risen just 3.6%.
Rent prices continued to grow rapidly in February, with the median U.S. asking rent up 4% vs. January. In the past year, rent has gone up 17.5% to $1,820/mo, an extra $271 per month compared to 2021. Renters now need to spend an extra $3,250/yr on rent compared to this time last year.
In any normal year, a 4.8% rent increase would be a big one for the full year. To see that in a single month is shocking. On top of already significant rent increases in 2021, the total rent increase since January 2021 now tops 16%. That’s an extra $245 that renters now need to come up with each month in order to make their rent payments.
Inflation has hit the economy and renters were not immune, experiencing an 11% increase in median asking rent across the country from January to December of 2021. In a “normal year”, 3-4% increase in overall rents is typical. Unfortunately, 2021 is a year for the books in yet another way: The ongoing Covid pandemic has driven this year’s extraordinary rent inflation from start to finish.
The average cost of rent across the nation typically decreases toward the end of each year. Unfortunately, the average price of monthly rent rose 8% last month. This shift is likely due to an increase in demand for rental homes. This rise is partially due to a continued shift towards single-family housing such as rental houses and townhomes. Single-family rental prices have actually risen 23% this year. Luckily, many tenants are in the process of moving, which should lead to more vacancies in the rental housing market.
October rent shows a fairly normal seasonal shift, with median rent starting to decline from peak summer highs. Median rent across the U.S. decreased from $1,649 in September to $1,600 in October, a fairly sharp decline of 3.0%. Across nearly 360K available rentals in October, Dwellsy continued to see apartment rents more or less flat for the year, while single-family home rentals continue to be the cause of above-normal rent growth in 2021.
To the surprise of many, the general rise in rental home prices is not actually reflective of the entire market. This year’s overall rent increases are coming solely from single-family rentals (SFR), while apartment home rental prices are actually decreasing. The price of apartments nationwide has actually decreased by 2.3% since January.
